NAME DROPPING

Name Dropping

December 26, 2007

*For Carson Daly, the phrase "the show must go on" has taken on a whole new significance. "An ultimatum was put in front of me," Daly told the Los Angeles Times of his decision to return to host NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly" during a continuing writers strike. "It was, 'Put a new show on Dec. 3 or 75 people are fired. What's your answer?'" Daly said he quickly decided he couldn't live with putting loyal staffers out of work. When asked who at NBC delivered the ultimatum, Daly said it was his "immediate bosses" but wouldn't be more specific. NBC did not respond.

*Grammy-winning R&B artist John Legend returned to his hometown of Springfield, Ohio, to headline a small Christmas Eve benefit concert of local artists at his high school alma mater. "Springfield has a lot of talent," said Legend, who performed to a sold-out crowd of 1,200 at Springfield North High. Proceeds from the concert, the brainchild of Legend's brother Vaughn Anthony Stephens, go to a scholarship fund.

*Martha Stewart can find good things even in a prison stay. On the Christmas Day episode of her TV show, Stewart showed off ornate clay forms of baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary, three camels and others she sculpted in a pottery class at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W.Va. "Even though every inmate was only allowed to do one a month, and I was only there for five months, I begged because I said I was an expert potter -- ceramicist actually -- and could I please make the entire nativity scene," she said. Her creations were all fired and glazed at the prison. Because nothing but the best will do, she completed the effect with tiny artificial palm trees imported from Germany by a New Jersey distributor. Stewart was imprisoned in 2004 for lying about a stock sale.

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Personals was compiled by Valentina Djeljosevic from Tribune news services and staff reports.